SPECIAL OFFER: For my LinkedIn family and blog followers, I would love to have you with me on this journey as I write this book. I would be honored to have you offer feedback on short pieces I write. This short piece today is the second draft of a Foreword. In return for your time and insights, I will provide you a copy of the book at no charge when I cross the finish line in a couple of months. (more…)
A few years ago I was blessed to speak at an IQPC Talent Management conference on a topic of “Change Leadership – When Change Management Is Not Enough.” My speaking invitation came from a post titled “Managing Change or Leading Change: Does It Matter?” I guess they liked the post and topic idea because IQPC interviewed me prior to the conference. The post is hyperlinked above and contains the interview transcript they provided. I share all this because it is the perfect lead in to navigating transformative initiatives be they…
Yesterday I jumped into a post by @BobMosher at his request along with a number of other professionals I admire and respect. The nature of the post was a lament regarding the difficulty of breaking through the long-held traditions of L&D’s default to training solutions to boost learning and performance. Several comments likened the effort to pushing a boulder up hill for years with only limited success. Here is a thought I offered in a separate post late yesterday afternoon… (more…)
By having a birthday on February 2nd one experiences a unique Ground Hog Day every year, and every year the same question surfaces, “Did you see your shadow today?” Not Punxsutawney Phil…me…did I see my shadow? I will say this about that…Stand down, pilgrims, let me put this all to rest. Here are the truths regarding the infamous conditions that foretell the remaining blight of winter: See the shadow – only six more weeks of winter Don’t see the shadow – only six more weeks of winter You’re welcome…return to…
Point-of-Work (PoW) is where measurable business outcomes are generated...or they are lost…or if not lost...compromised. I am an advocate that, at the core, Workforce Transformation has a direct line to optimization of sustained productivity and profitability, and these outcomes require measurable performance outcomes manifesting at Point-of-Work That single fact seems straight-forward to this camper and that if we truly seek positive business outcomes as our endgame, shouldn't we focus our discovery and solution designs there first? It only took me 20 years to shift my thinking…adopt a new performance DRIVER…and…
The short answer is YES! Arriving at a destination has a connotation of finality or completion, but what happens when the characteristics of the “destination” are dynamic and influenced by continuous change? Welcome to the world of Learning & Development (L&D); a world where we struggle to optimize workforce performance outcomes with static solutions and technology in a Dynamic Learning Performance Ecosystem. We (L&D) see it. Our operational stakeholders see it…and are asking for different solutions that show measurable impact to the bottom-line. The question becomes one of are we…
Friday afternoon I had one of those moments where “poking the bear” was top of mind. The thoughts that surfaced triggered a brief paragraph-sized post…launched around 2:00 PM ET on Friday…10,017 views as of noon Saturday and some great dialogue still underway. “Why poke the bear?” or maybe, “Who is the bear?” Funny thing, the bear is not a “who” as much as it is a “what”. The bear is a myth. that many organizations at the enterprise level must overcome…simply put, it’s a blind spot. The bear is a…
For the last ten years of conference presentations, I’ve walked away from each with positive reinforcement, buoyed by live comments and positive post-session evaluation scores. Receiving verbatim comments on evaluations like “Best session of this conference!” make a body feel good…especially after being plugged into a last-day time slot. That kind of feedback tells me the message promoting the pursuit of adopting a Point-of-Work Discipline is the right one. However, I decided the right message is shared with the wrong audience. Not “wrong” in the sense of their tactical ability…
<Rant Warning> Here’s an icebreaker for the next C-suite pow-wow in your organization. With all the CXO roles present around the table, and each having a single sheet of paper, ask them to complete this sentence with one or two words. “I would characterize our organization as one operating in a culture of ___________.” Have each put their answers on the paper…no cheating…no cross-conversation…no looking at your neighbor’s answer…fold the sheet in half and pass it to the “C” person on their left. Then have each person read aloud what’s…
In this final snippet of the Point-of-Work Assessment methodology we focus on assessing the attributes of Impact & Analytics. Traditionally, we (L&D) do an excellent job of evaluating at Level 1 and often at Level 2 to document successful learning interventions. In reality, those evaluations only represent POTENTIAL since none of our participants have delivered any tangible business value or impact at Levels 3 & 4 which only manifest at Point-of-Work. Often, Levels 3 & 4 are defined in general, non-specific terms and represent a challenge when the business is…